The invention relates to an improved protective carrier for microcircuit devices having beam leads.
Protective carriers useful for transporting, handling and testing microcircuit devices such as semiconductor chips which have beam leads, without removing the devices from the carriers are known. One type of protective carrier is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,350, to Charles L. Stoner, dated Jul. 9. 1974. Other protective carriers employ generally planar bases which have locking slots, alignment projections, apertures, and the like, a printed circuit board or circuit element on the carrier base with a cavity therein adapted to receive the microcircuit device and having a plurality of electrical paths each of which have an end adjacent the cavity on the circuit element, microcircuit device beam leads aligned with corresponding electrical paths on the circuit element, a cover member over the microcircuit device and in contact with the beam leads, and finally means for locking or compressing the cover member against the beam leads to provide electrical contact with electrical paths on the circuit element and concurrently retain the beam leads in alignment with corresponding electrical paths on circuit board during handling and testing.
A limitation in this described device is that reliable electrical contact between the beam leads and the electrical paths may not always be achieved due to differences or variations in the flatness of the cover member or the carrier base, or variations in thickness of the beam leads or in projection of the electrical paths from the circuit element, or the like. When good contact is not made, erroneous measurements or indications of circuit failure may occur when the microcircuit device is checked in the carrier. As such, a protective carrier which provides reliable electrical contact between the beam leads and the electrical paths on the circuit board is desired.